Final Score

And so the end of this trimester arrived. There were five of us gathered around the table in Joe’s kitchen, and while Sam’s four point lead was unlikely to be overturned, I still had hopes of getting second back from Joe, and Hannah had a chance of beating Adam for points ratio.

First course on the night’s menu was Notre Dame. This game of plague-fighting in medieval Paris was new to Sam and Hannah, so Joe guided them through the rules in his inimitable style. As we began, I was encouraged by how often my moves were matched by the game uberlord, Adam. However, like two slightly different starting points of a Mandelbrot Set, we soon diverged into distinctly different paths. I remained true to my ethos of saving lives, while Adam was happy to let the plague take its toll.

I’m not sure what tactic Sam used in this game, and I don’t think Sam is sure either. Hannah quickly saw the power of the Park, and played a tight game. Joe and Adam both loaded the park full of people, hoping to bring in the benefits of extra prestige points, with mixed results.

By the end I was unable to tell who had won. To everyone’s surprise, new boy Sam took top spot by a single coin from myself, with Adam trailing in last with his pox-ridden borough forever destined to be used by Parisian comedians when they want to make fun of something smelly and horrid.

Sam 58 +1 coin
Andrew 58 +0 coins
Joe 51
Hannah 50
Adam 39

Next up was a game of For Sale. This quick game of property speculation was new to Hannah, so Joe left it to the three of us to explain it to her while he went to the toilet. Unfortunately, Joe’s inimitable style is inimitable and we didn’t do a very good job. In the end, it was up to Joe to tell her the rules when he got back, while the rest of us looked sheepish.

Adam 60
Joe 53
Hannah 52
Sam 50
Andrew 39

Lastly, by popular request, Poison was exhumed from the bottom of Joe’s games cupboard. This somewhat random game of mathematics and luck was a perfect end to the evening, even if my game was as good as over by the end of the second round and after that it was just a case of hoping other people played as badly as me, which they almost did. In the end Joe walked away with first place, with the other four left squabbling over the crumbs.

Joe 13
Sam 30
Hannah 32
Adam 35
Andrew 36

And so the evening ended, with everyone tired, but happy. Sam’s place at the top of the leaderboard was cemented by his first win with Notre Dame, but as we realised Hannah had beaten her close rival and co-habitee Adam twice this evening, perhaps his points ratio win wasn’t so secure.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio	Absolute	Abs ratio	% score	% ratio
Sam	30	125	4.17	1504	83.56	524.5	17.48
Joe	27	121.5	4.5	1191	66.17	422.39	15.6
Andrew	32	114.5	3.57	1077	53.85	410.31	12.82
Adam	23	111.5	4.84	731	56.23	316.57	17.77
Hannah	10	45.5	4.55	231	46.2	105.55	10.55
Quentin	9	40	4.44	132	26.4	76.92	8.55
Chris	5	20.5	4.1	137	68.5	42.64	8.53
Jonny	6	18.5	3.1	187	62.33	44.47	7.41
Steve	4	16	4	104	26	56.62	14.15

Sam takes first place, as predicted, but despite Adam ending with an evening where he came 5th and 4th, he managed top keep his ratio intact. Hannah couldn’t catch him, and a late surge by Joe couldn’t upset the form either. Sam also takes Absolute score and ratio but not if you take I’m The Boss at face value. In this case, Hannah wins by around four million points.

Meanwhile, I came first for best attendance. Yay, me.

But for next season, there’s talk of a score multiplier according to how long a game lasts. This scoring system is only getting more complicated. Hooray!

[EDIT: After Adam's suggestion of a scoring sytem based on percentage of total points scored, I hurried home and mucked about with the spreadsheet and here it is! And congrats to Adam, for inventing a new way of scoring where he wins! Sam wins the overall percentage score, but Adam takes pecentage ratio: On average, he scores 17.77% of the total scores. Meanwhile, it's a boost for Steve and puts his low position into perspective.]

[ANOTHER EDIT: I noticed I'd made a mistake in typing in the absolute scores. It didn't make any difference to the positions, but it does demonstrate the considerable lead that Sam had. And while I was mending that, it occured to me that some people played more non-scoring games, so I recalculated the average taking those into account. Which now means Chris and Jonny leap up the table in that respect. Congratulations guys!]